Sunday, April 19, 2009

Fun Dog...

What do I really, really want to do this week ?

1. Play a full game of monopoly with my kids without trying to rush the game to end
2. Run away from work or take an afternoon off and watch a movie
3. Wake up late and have a leisurely breakfast at a park nearby
4. Lie on the grass with my children on a breezy day and make cloud pictures in the sky
5. Take a long , long walk with a dear friend and stop at coffee shops along the way
6. Go to an flea market or find a place i haven't been to, or rediscover a childhood hangout
7. Have a meal with friends, ideally cook with them first
8. Lie down to read a book and fall asleep listening to trees and birds chirping

That's bliss!! What's stopping me ...well nothing really except my sense of 'duty' and feeling that i need to do my chores first before enjoying myself... silly notion but i suspect alot of us do this. And yet if we played a little more, we will actually lighten up, be happier and probably attract more bliss! I met an accountant who decided to become a full time artist...he is following his bliss. Another friend of mine stopped at the height of his career to become a rock star photographer. He says, it felt right and he also says that he has never worked a day since then. Quite different from these two people I know, I also know many others who carry secret desires to play more but are afraid to do it. For example I know this one person who loves to dance but wont stand up for it because she needs to do the right thing by her family.

We make choices every step of the way and I think we wear those choices in the way we look and our outlook to life. I feel that doing more of what we really want to do ,will keep us young , happy and healthy . It does not have to be as drastic as my accountant friend or my rock star photographer friend where they took a turn in the complete opposite direction. It can be mini steps incorporating some play into our day to day lives.

Most of us have a kid in us that wants to come out to play, some of us take ourselves too seriously and need to lighten up. I am not sure if I will remember the targets I achieved or the business plans I wrote but I know I still remember some of the pranks we played at work. For eg. one time when we had a colleague arrive to visit us from another country, we had a garland waiting for him and we told him that it was our custom that he wore it all day. Another time , this person I used to work with changed the screen saver of her bosse's computer to say " I am so sexy" and he did not notice it until he was making a presentation in another country and the screen saver changed in the background behind him and his audience pointed it out to him!!!! ... luckily he had a sense of humour. One time we all came to work dressed up as we would for a profession of our choice... we had a flight stewardess in uniform , an engineer in overalls, a nurse and we even had a gypsy tarot card reader. It was the eve of a public holiday, and it was a slow day, we stayed in costume and character all day.... we laughed so much till we had tears in our eyes and our sides ached. I remember , I attended a course one time where we had to model /work out successful behaviours of other famous people. I was asked to be Mr. Li Ka Shing. I wore a pin stripped suit, gelled my hair back and wore glasses to look like a man. The best part of it all was that we had to attend a dinner party and stay in character all evening, we had Indira Gandhi, princess Diana and many other famous people at dinner that night.

Whenever we play, we allow for a little bit of inspiration / light to enter our lives and the lives of the other people who play with us. It helps us lift out of the mundane and routine to see things from a slightly different perspective .....besides.... isn't this what others will remember about us when we are long gone! Enjoy!

1 comment:

  1. Most of us don't follow our dreams to be who we really want to be. It's nice to be able to let our hair down sometimes and dream a little. I think most of us usually go out and fulfill our dreams at a later age hence we see a lot of people switching in the middle of their careers. It's never too late ... just do it when u feel the time is right and you feel ready for it.:)

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